I would like to take issue with several points made in the letter from Bruce Whittier in the Gazette of Dec. 17 (“Sheirer’s column a case
of here we go again.”) First, Mr. Whittier defends the Electoral College with the claim that if “only the coastal areas of our country be allowed to tell the rest of our citizens how things should be run, that scenario … would end up as a national disaster.” However, the principle of democracy is “one person, one vote.”
The Electoral College system, among its other faults, gives residents of sparsely populated states, most of which are reliably Republican, far more influence on the outcome of presidential elections than those who live in heavily populated states.
The other point is much more troubling to me. It involves disinformation. For example, Mr. Whittier claims that Hillary Clinton “destroyed 33,000 emails after a subpoena.” This is simply false, and the claim was refuted by the FBI in 2016.
Mr. Whittier’s other claims concern alleged wrongdoing by Clinton in Benghazi, Haiti and Russia. All are equally false, as can be ascertained by looking them up on the fact checker at Snopes.com. I assume that Mr. Whittier is innocently repeating disinformation he has gotten from sources such as Fox News.
The fact checking site Politifact.com found that 59% of a representative sample of statements made by Fox News hosts and commentators were either partly or entirely false. This is so corruptive of the political system in our country that we as a society may be headed for destruction. A man like Donald Trump can tell any lie he pleases (more than 14,000 of them since his inauguration), confident that it will be echoed by influential sources of disinformation and believed by a substantial portion of the populace. Very sad but true.
John Connolly
Haydenville